


the song in my head was all that i had

by elsaclack



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: (and potentially his entire life before now), F/M, Gen, Post-Finale Fic, anyways i'm rambling i'll stop, current mood: ted danson realizing he's been mispronouncing 'eleanor' for 3 years, spoiler: everything is NOT fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 07:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17544905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elsaclack/pseuds/elsaclack
Summary: He's Chidi Anagonye, and everything is fine.





	the song in my head was all that i had

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first tgp fic!! ah!! i'm excited!!
> 
> i mean i'm still steadily weeping over the finale but that's neither here nor there at this point

_ Welcome!  _ the wall directly in front of him says.  _ Everything is fine. _

The letters are a pleasant green against the otherwise off-white surface, and they are the very first thing his vision focuses on when his eyes flutter open. There are two rather innocuous pillars on either side of the greeting, and perched atop those pillars sit two potted plants - again, fairly innocuous, as far as plants go.

It’s quiet - no, silent. Not even a distant  _ whoosh _ of an air conditioner or muffled voices from somewhere beyond this place pierces the silence around him. When he experimentally shifts his feet, he finds the sounds of the soles of his shoes moving against the floor muffled by soft carpet - light blue around most of the floor, except for the circle of grey in the center, where he’s seated. He’s alone, aside from the couch on which he sits, the two potted plants, and that pleasant green text on the wall before him.

_ Welcome! Everything is fine. _

It’s strange, he thinks, how  _ fine _ he actually feels. He shouldn’t feel fine - he knows that he shouldn’t feel fine. He’s not sure  _ how _ or  _ why _ he knows that, but he does, with as much quiet certainty as he knows his own name. He’s Chidi Anagonye and he shouldn’t feel fine. But he  _ does _ , and it’s exhilarating. He’s Chidi Anagonye and for the first time  _ ever _ , everything is fine.

A little niggling alarm is going off deep in the recesses of his mind, but it’s easy to ignore here on this plush off-white loveseat beneath the gentle glow of the light on the ceiling over his head. Anxiety and panic sit like faint heartburn in his chest, but one brief press of his fist against his sternum has them shrinking down to nothingness in a heartbeat.

He’s fine, and it’s  _ fantastic _ .

There’s a set of floor-to-ceiling doors off to his left, doors made of some rich wood he’s sure he could identify if he studied them hard enough, and he knows he’s waiting for someone - or something - to come and fetch him from beyond those doors. And once again, he’s not sure how or why he knows that, but he does, and that’s fine, because  _ everything _ is fine.

The corners of his mouth drift upwards. And it suddenly strikes him, sitting on this loveseat in this pleasant little waiting room, that he can’t remember the last time he smiled so naturally.

He likes it here, he decides. He likes it in this small room with the potted plants and the soft loveseat and the fluffy carpets, where everything is fine.

The quiet, metallic sounds of a hand wrapping around the doorknob to his left sends his heart jumping for the first time in this room. But before the panic has a chance to take root, the door is swinging open, and a tiny, beautiful woman steps into view.

Her face is framed by shoulder-length golden hair and it’s sweet and reassuring, so reassuring it’s almost familiar; she smiles pleasantly, and inexplicably, the sight of it makes his own smile grow brighter.

And his heart skips a beat for the first time in recent memory.

“Hi, Chidi,” she says softly. “I’m Eleanor. Come on in.”

He’s never been one to believe in anything so farcical as fate or destiny, but he’d venture to say there  _ is  _ some sort of undeniable shift in the very foundation of his being as he plants his hands on the cushions beneath him and pushes himself up to his feet. Perhaps it isn’t so grandiose - but there is no denying that her crystal blue eyes are simply hypnotic.

He glances back at the greeting on the wall one last time before stepping through the doorway; as he passes her, she reaches with her free hand to gently squeeze his upper arm. “Don’t worry,” she says, somehow soft and resolute at the same time. “Everything really  _ is _ fine.”

The calm simmering warm in the spaces between his veins intensifies, just slightly. She pats his arm before letting her hand fall to her side; strangely, a faint, distant ache of longing echoes in his gut.

But it passes after a half-moment, and he returns her smile. “Thanks,” he says, and she nods. “Where - um - where are we?”

“Go ahead and have a seat,” she says, gesturing into the interior of the room - the office, he’s just now registering. “I’ll explain everything.”

He tears his gaze away from the odd portrait on the wall opposite where they stand to briefly study her face; she smiles again, this time a bit more pointedly, though no less warm. Three dozen questions churn in his mind and three dozen more well up in his chest, but Eleanor is still smiling, still waiting, and it’s fine.

“Okay,” he nods and shuffles backwards - toward the desk, he thinks - not yet willing to tear his gaze away from her. “Okay.”

“Buddy,” she says - exasperated, warm, endeared, so many emotions he can’t put a name to.

“I’m fine.” he says even as his heels catch on the lip of a rug somewhere behind him. “I’m fine. I’m Chidi Anagonye, and I’m totally fine.”

“You sure?”

“Um - I mean, I - I have, uh, a little bit of a stomach ache, but it’s nothing. Really, it’s nothing. I - I always have a stomach ache.”

Her expression is one of undeniable affection, growing ever softer as he rambles. “I know,” she says, and it’s with such conviction that he’s certain she really  _ does _ know. “It’s okay. It’s gonna  _ be _ okay. I’m gonna answer all your questions, and I’m gonna take care of ya. I promise.”

She touches his arm again - somehow warmer than before - and another involuntary smile blossoms across his face. He likes this place.

He likes Eleanor.

He’s Chidi Anagonye, and everything is fine.


End file.
